Armenia, Mount Ararat was the object I had particularly in
view. Various circumstances then compelled me to content
myself with a visit to the north side of that mountain. But
in the following year, during my journey to Turkish Armenia
and Persia, it was vouchsafed me to explore the previously
entirely unknown south side of the Ararat group, and to abide
upon Turkish and Persian territory, in the vicinity of the
mighty boundary-stone of three great empires. The striking
position of Ararat, almost equidistant from China and from
the Iberian peninsula, from the ice-bound Lena in the high
northern latitudes of Siberia, and from the slimy current of
the Ganges in Southern Hindostan, has at all periods
attracted the attention of geographers. For years I had
harboured the ardent wish to visit the mysterious mountain.
Towering in the centre of the Old Continent, an image of the
fire whose mighty remains extend to the regions of eternal
ice, Ararat is indicated by Jewish and Armenian tradition as
the peak of refuge, round which the deluge roared, unable to
overflow it. From the summit of the gigantic cone descended
the pairs of all creatures, whose descendants people the
earth."
On Ararat, as in many other places, tradition and science disagree.
Diluvial traces are sought there in vain. On the other hand, evidences
of volcanic devastation on every side abound; and a wish to
investigate this, and to ascertain the details of the subterranean
commotion that had destroyed Arguri three years previously, was one of
the principal motives of Dr Wagner's visit to Armenia. Towards the
middle of May he started from Tefflis, the most important town of the
Russian trans-Caucasian provinces, accompanied by Abowian, a
well-educated Armenian and accomplished linguist, and attended by
Ivan, the doctor's Cossack, a sharp fellow, and a faithful servant
after his kind, but, like all his countrymen, an inveterate thief.
Their vehicle was a Russian _telega_, or posting carriage, springless,
and a perfect bone-setter on the indifferent roads of Armenia. They
travelled in company with that well-known original and indefatigable
traveller, General Baron Von Hallberg,[22] of whose appearance, and of
the sensation it excited in the streets of Erivan, Dr Wagner gives an
amusing account:--
"Amongst the travellers was a strange figure, around which
the inquisitive mob assembled, with expressions of the utmost
wonderment. It was that of an old man, hard upon eighty, but
who, nevertheless, sprang into the carriage, and took his
seat beside a young Russian lady, with an air of juvenile
vigour. From his chin and furrowed cheeks fell a venerable
gray beard, half concealing the diamond-studded order of St
Anna, which hung round his neck, whilst upon his left breast
four or five other stars and crosses glittered from under the
black Russian caftan, and his bald head was covered by a red
Turkish fez, to the front of which a leathern peak was sewn.
'Who can he be?' murmured the curious Armenians and Tartars,
who could not reconcile the old gentleman's brilliant
decorations with his coachman's caftan and Turkish cap.
'Certainly a general, or perhaps a great lord from the
emperor's court--a man of the first _tschin_!'--'Or mayhap a
foreign ambassador!' quoth others. 'Since he wears the fez,
he must come from Stamboul.' A Munich _gamin_ would have
enlightened the good folks of Erivan. The interesting
stranger, as some of my readers may already have conjectured,
was no other than Baron Von Hallberg of Munich, (known also
as the Hermit of Gauting,) my much-respected countryman. I
made the acquaintance of this remarkable man, and great
traveller, in 1836, at Algiers, where we passed many a
cheerful day together, in the society of some jovial
fellow-countrymen. After a lapse of seven years, I again met
him at Tefflis, and we travelled together to Armenia. Since
our parting at the foot of Atlas, he had visited the pyramids
of Egypt, and the ruined temples of Heliopolis, and now the
unwearied traveller thirsted after a sight of the capital of
Persia's kings. He had come down the Wolga, and over the
Caucasus, and was about to cross the Persian frontier."
At Pipis, the chief town of a circle, and residence of its captain, Dr
Wagner was struck by the appearance of a handsome modern building; and
soon he learned, to his astonishment, that it was a district-school
erected by the former governor, General Von Rosen. A school in this
wild district, scantily peopled with rude Tartars and Armenians,
seemed as much out of place as a circulating library in an Ojibbeway
village. He proceeded forthwith to visit the seminary, whose
folding-doors stood invitingly open. The spacious halls were
unfurnished and untenanted; over the mouldy walls spiders spread their
webs with impunity; the air was damp, the windows were broken, and a
great lizard scuttled out of sight upon the traveller's intrusion.
There were neither benches nor desks, teachers nor pupils. Nor had
there ever been any of these, said a Cossack lieutenant, whose horses
were feeding in the court-yard. The school-house was a mere impromptu
in honour of the Russian emperor. In many countries, when the
sovereign travels, his progress is celebrated by triumphal arches,
garlands, and illuminations. In Russia it is different. Nicholas is
known to prefer use to ornament, and when he visits the remote
provinces of his vast dominions, his lieutenants and governors strain
their ingenuity to make him credit the advance of civilisation and the
prosperity of his subjects. The property-men are set to work, and
edifices spring up, more solid, but, at present, scarcely more useful
than the pasteboard mansions on a theatrical stage. On his approach to
Tefflis, the school was run up in all haste, and plans and schemes
were shown for the education of Tartar and Armenian. Languages and
every branch of knowledge were to be taught, and money was to be
given to the people to induce them to send their children to the hall
of learning. "The project was splendid," said the Cossack officer to
Dr Wagner, "but there the matter rested. No sooner had the Emperor
seen the school-house, and expressed his satisfaction, than the hands
of masons and carpenters seemed suddenly crippled. Not another ruble
reached Pipis for the prosecution of the philanthropical work, the
architect took himself off, and we took possession of the empty house.
The court-yard is convenient for our horses, and in the hot summer
days my Cossacks find pleasant lying in the large cool halls." Not all
the acuteness, foresight, and far-sightedness, and many kingly
qualities, which combine to render Nicholas the most remarkable of
existing monarchs, can protect from such impositions as this the
sovereign of so extensive a country as Russia. In vain may the czar,
indefatigable upon the road, visit the remotest corners of his
dominions; unless he do so incognito, after the fashion of Haroun
Alraschid, he will still be cheated. The governing part of the
population, the civil and military officials, conspire to deceive him;
and the governed dare not reveal the truth, for their masters have
abundant means at their disposal to punish an indiscretion. "Life is
delightful in this country," said Mr Ivanoff, a Russian district
overseer in Armenia, as he reclined upon his divan, wrapped in a
silken caftan, sipping coffee and smoking a cigar; "how absurd of
people in Russia to look upon Caucasus as a murder-hole, and to pity
those who have to cross it, as if they were going straight to
purgatory! I reckon one vegetates here very endurably, and he who
complains is either an ass, a rascal, or a liar. You see, my house is
tolerably comfortable, my table not bad: I have four-and-twenty
saddle-horses in my stable, superb beasts, fit for a prince's stud,
and to crown all, I am loved and honoured by the twenty thousand human
beings over whom I rule as the sardar's representative." Ivanoff's
frank avowal of his satisfaction contrasted with the hypocritical
complaints of many of his colleagues, who, whilst filling their
pockets and consuming the fat of the land, affect to consider
residence in trans-Caucasus the most cruel of inflictions. "Truly,"
says Dr Wagner, "nothing was wanting to the comfort of life in Mr
Ivanoff's dwelling: convenient furniture, a capital kitchen, wine from
France, cigars from the Havannah, horses of the best breeds of Arabia,
Persia, and Turkistan--all these things have their value, and yet, to
procure them, Mr Ivanoff had a salary of only six hundred paper
rubles, (about six-and-twenty pounds sterling!) He had a tolerably
pretty wife, on whom he doated, and to whom he brought all manner of
presents whenever he returned from the Erivan bazaar, which he visited
generally once a-week. Trinkets and silken stuffs and rich
carpets--whatever, in short, the little woman fancied--she at once
got, and if not to be had at Erivan, it was written for to Tefflis....
When Ivanoff rode forth in his official capacity, it was with a
following of twenty horsemen, all belonging to his household, and with
a banner waving before him. What a life! comfort, riches, oriental
pomp, and despotic power! Who would not be chief of a Russian district
in Armenia?" All this upon ten shillings a-week! It was more
astounding even than the school-house at Pipis. Abowian, as yet
inexperienced in Russian ways, regarded the riddle as unsolvable.
Ivanoff confessed he had nothing beside his salary. How then did he
maintain this princely existence? He assured the travellers he was
beloved by his people, and the Armenian peasants confirmed the
assurance. Extortion and violent plunder could not therefore be the
means employed. It was not till some days later, and in another
district, that Dr Wagner elucidated the mystery. He saw a long
procession of Armenian and Tartar peasants proceeding to the house of
Ivanoff's official brother. They were gift-laden; one led a horse,
another a sheep, a third dragged a stately goat by the horns, and
forced the bearded mountaineer to kneel before the Russian's corpulent
wife, who received the animals, the eggs, milk, cakes, and other
offerings, as well in coin as in kind, quite as matter of course. Nay,
she even looked sour and sulky, as though the tribute were scanty;
and Dr Wagner, who was an unobserved witness of the scene, heard her
say to the leader of the deputation, (probably the mayor of some
Armenian village:) "Think yourselves lucky to get off so cheaply, for
if it were known that the _tschuma_ is amongst you!..." The shrewd
doctor caught at this menacing phrase, as a possible key to what had
so greatly puzzled him. The meaning of the Russian word _tschuma_,
which, upon the man to whom it was addressed, seemed to have the
effect of a thunderbolt, being unknown to him, he inquired it of his
companion. _Tschuma_ means the PLAGUE. This frightful disease the
governor of the trans-Caucasian provinces, stimulated by stringent
orders from St Petersburg, makes it his constant effort to extirpate at
any price from the territory under his rule. Let a district-overseer
report a village infected, and forthwith it is placed in the most rigid
quarantine by means of a circle of Cossack pickets; for months the
unlucky inhabitants are deprived of communication with the surrounding
country; their agriculture is suspended, their crops rot in the ground,
and they lack the necessaries of life. All their clothes, bedding,
blankets, everything capable of conveying infection, are burned without
reserve, and the compensation allowed does not repay a tithe of the
loss. Hence the terrible power of the district overseer: a word
suffices; he will declare the village infected! The first death from
fever, or any other endemic, furnishes him with a pretext. At the least
threat of this nature, the peasants, apprehending ruin, hasten to
sacrifice part of their substance, and to avert the evil by gifts to
the great man, who is maintained in opulence and luxury by these
illegitimate imposts. Here was the secret of Ivanoff's five-and-twenty
horses and other little comforts. Nevertheless he was liked in the
country, for he did not over-drive the willing brute he lived upon,
neither did he hoard like his colleagues, but spent his money freely
and generously. And the poor peasants brought him their contributions
unasked and almost gladly, eager to keep him in good humour, and
fearful of changing him for a severer task-master. Suppose Czar
Nicholas on a visit to his Armenian provinces, and how can it be
expected that the poor ignorant wretches who offer up their sheep and
chickens as ransom from the plague-spot, will dare carry to his august
feet a complaint against their tyrants? They may have heard of his
justice, and feel confidence in it--for it is well known that the
emperor is prompt and terrible in his chastisement of oppressive and
unjust officials, when he can detect them--and yet they will hesitate
to risk greater evils by trying to get rid of those that already
afflict them. The _esprit-de-corps_ of Russian _employés_ is notorious,
and a disgraced governor or overseer may generally reckon pretty
confidently on his successor for vengeance upon those who denounced
him. The corruption, according to Dr Wagner, extends to the very
highest; and men of rank and birth, princes and general officers, are
no more exempt from it than the understrapper with a few hundred rubles
per annum. "One crow does not pick out another's eyes," says the German
proverb. But in spite of his officers' cunning and caution, the emperor
can hardly visit his distant provinces without detecting abuses and
getting rid of illusions. One of these was dispelled when he, for the
first time, beheld, upon his journey to Russian Armenia in 1837, the
much-vaunted fortifications of Erivan's citadel. Count Paskewitch's
pompous bulletins had led him to expect something very different from
the feeble walls, composed of volcanic stones, loosely cemented with
mud and straw, upon whose conqueror a proud title had been bestowed.
The result of all the emperor's observations at that time had great
influence--so says Dr Wagner--upon his subsequent policy. His love of
peace, and his moderation with respect to Asiatic conquest, were
confirmed by the impression he then received. Of this the doctor was
assured by many well-informed and trustworthy persons in the
trans-Caucasus. "This country needs much improvement," said Nicholas to
a high official who accompanied him through the monotonous,
thinly-peopled, and scantily-tilled wildernesses, and through the
indigent towns and villages of Armenia. His desire for conquest was
cooled, and his wish to consolidate and improve what he already
possessed was strengthened tenfold. Everywhere upon the south-eastern
frontier of Russia Dr Wagner traced evidence of this latter feeling.
But he also beheld forts on a scale and of a construction hinting
offensive as well as defensive projects on the part of their builder.
One of them was in process of erection at Erivan, to replace the crazy
edifice already referred to. In 1843, the progress of the works was
slow, for another expensive citadel was building on the Turkish
frontier, and it was desirable to limit the annual outlay for this
item. And a hostile demonstration against Russia, from Persians beyond
the river Araxes, was the last thing to be apprehended.
"The great new fortress is far less intended for a defence
than for a storehouse and place of muster for a Russian army
of operations against the Persian frontier provinces, whose
conquest the Emperor Nicholas undoubtedly bequeaths to his
successors. The formidable constructions at Sevastopol,
Nicolajeff, and Gumri, are to answer the same end against
Turkey as that of Erivan against Persia. These frontier forts
are the sword of Damocles, which the emperor--not greedy of
conquest himself, but far-calculating for the
future--suspends over the heads of his Moslem neighbours, to
be drawn from its scabbard under more favourable
circumstances by a warlike son or grandson."
The appearance of the forts in question gives a show of reason to Dr
Wagner's prognostications. Gumri--or Alexandropol, as the Russians
have re-baptised the contiguous town--is built on a rocky eminence,
whose crags serve it in some measure for walls. It contains barracks,
case-mates, storehouses, and hospitals, all as strong as they are
spacious, and which could be defended as detached citadels, supposing
an enemy to have mastered the walls and rocky out-works. It is adapted
for an army of sixty thousand men, and is so roomy, that in case of a
sudden inroad of the Pasha of Kars--who, if war broke out, could
probably bring an army to the river Arpatschai before the Russians
could assemble one at Tefflis, and march to the frontier--not only the
whole population of Alexandropol, (in 1843 about 6000 souls,) but the
entire peasantry of the surrounding country would find shelter within
its walls. Its natural and artificial strength is so great, that a
small garrison might laugh at the attacks of Turks and Persians.
"'From these turrets,' said the mustached Russian major who
showed me all that was worth seeing in the fortress of Gumri,
'our eagle will one day wing its victorious flight.' If the
Russians ever conquer Asiatic Turkey, the first step will
undoubtedly be taken from this spot, and therefore has the
sagacious emperor commanded no expense to be spared in the
perfection of the works. 'The power of Russia is patient as
time, vast as space,' once exclaimed a renowned orator in the
tribune of the French Chamber. Persons who assert that
Nicholas has no ambition, that all thirst of conquest is
foreign to his character, are perhaps right; but greatly do
those err who believe that he contents him with playing the
part of the first Tory in Europe, and thinks only of closing
the Russian frontier to liberal ideas, of drilling his guards
and passing brilliant reviews. The works done, doing, and
planned, at Nicolajeff, Sevastopol, Gumri, Erivan, prove the
potent monarch to have ulterior views. For himself, he may be
content not to enlarge the enormous territory within whose
limits his voice is law. So long as he lives, perhaps, no
ukase will silence the Hatti-scherif of the padishad beyond
the Arpatschai. But under the shadow of this much-vaunted
moderation and love of peace, the prudent emperor forgets not
to clear the road of conquest into Asia, and to leave it
broad, smooth, and convenient for some succeeding Romanoff."
Such speculations as these, proceeding from a man who has travelled,
with slow step and observant eye, every inch of the ground to which he
refers, and to whom a clear head, reflective habits, and much
communion with the people of the country, have given peculiar
facilities for the formation of a sound judgment, are of high interest
and value. Dr Wagner is no dogmatist, but a close and candid reasoner,
abounding in facts to support what he advances, and having at his
fingers' ends all that has been written not only in his own country,
but in England and elsewhere, on the subject of Russia and her
emperor, of her policy and her eastern neighbours. And it is to the
credit of his impartiality that his writings afford no clue to his own
political predilections. He stigmatises abuses wherever he meets
them, and from whatever cause proceeding; but whilst showing due
sympathy with the gallant Circassians and long-suffering Armenians, he
wholly eschews the insane propagandism so rife in the writings of many
of his countrymen. He is evidently not of opinion that autocrat and
oppressor are always synonymous, and that absolutism is essentially
the worst tyranny.
A preferable site having been found for the new fort of Erivan, the
old one was still standing at the period of Dr Wagner's visit. He
gives an amusing account of its interior, and especially of the
apartments of the ex-sardar, Hussein Khan, whose walls were painted in
fresco, an art still quite in its infancy amongst the Persians. The
pictures, as might be expected, were rather grotesque than graceful in
their execution.
"The subject of one of them is the history of Jussuf (Joseph)
in Egypt, based upon the Arabian tradition. Zuleikha, the
wife of Potiphar--so runs the Moslem legend--had become the
laughing-stock of the ladies of Pharaoh's court, by the
failure of her attempt to seduce the beautiful Joseph. To
revenge herself, she invited all those court-dames to visit
her, and commanded Joseph to hand them fruit and sherbet. But
when the women beheld him, they were so bewitched by his
beauty, that they bit their fingers instead of the
pomegranates. This is the moment selected by the Persian
artist. One of the ladies is seen to swoon from surprise, and
Zuleikha triumphs at this incident, and at the confusion of
the scoffers."
There was considerable license in the subjects of some of the other
pictures, one of which was intended to turn the Armenian Christians
into ridicule, by representing their priests and bishops in profane
society and riotous revel. Amongst the portraits, one of the last
sardar of Erivan represented him with a gloomy and forbidding
countenance--an expression which, if true to life, was by no means in
conformity with his character.
"Hussein Khan was esteemed, even by the Armenians, as an able
ruler. He was a brave warrior, a great protector of the fine
arts, and tolerably moderate and just in his actions. In the
struggle with the Russians he exhibited the utmost personal
gallantry, but his example had no effect upon his cowardly
soldiery. Without his knowledge his brother had attempted to
have the Russian general murdered. When, after the surrender
of the citadel, they both fell into the hands of the
Russians, Count Paskewitch was inclined to take his revenge,
by excluding the sardar's brother, as an assassin, from the
benefits of the capitulation. But the firm bearing and cold
resignation of the Persian, when brought before his
conqueror, moved the latter to mercy. 'Every nation,' said
the prisoner to Count Paskewitch, (the words were repeated to
Dr Wagner by an eye-witness of the interview,) 'has its own
way of making war. With us Persians, all means are held good
and praiseworthy by which we can injure our foe. Thy death
would have profited us, by spreading confusion and alarm
amongst thy troops, and we should have availed ourselves of
the circumstance for an attack. And if I sought to kill thee,
it was solely in the interest of my sovereign's cause. If you
desire revenge, you are free to take it. I am in your power,
and shall know how to meet my fate.' This calm courage made a
great impression upon the staff of general Paskewitch,
(although the Persian noble was a man of very bad
reputation,) and the Russian commander generously gave his
enemy his life, and ultimately his freedom."
The sardar's harem has less decoration than the state apartments.
Formerly its walls were covered with frescos, mosaic work, and
porcelain ornaments of many colours; but since the Russians took
possession all these have disappeared, leaving the walls bare and
white. During the czar's short stay at Erivan, he inhabited one of
these rooms, and wrote, with his own hand, in firm, well-formed
characters, his name upon the wall. The signature is now framed and
glazed. In many houses where the emperor passed a night, when upon his
travels, he left a similar memento of his presence, sometimes adding a
few friendly words for his host.